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Colorado - Mon. 05/05/25 |
A Free Business Publication from Alpine Bank
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SONNENBERG SELECTED TO HEAD FARM SERVICE AGENCY IN COLORADO
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Jerry Sonnenberg, who is a native of Sterling and served 16 years in the Colorado Legislature and was serving as a Logan County commissioner, has been named the executive director of the Farm Service Agency for Colorado by the Trump administration. Sonnenberg owns a cattle transport company and a farm in Logan County, where his family has farmed for six generations. He was inducted into the Colorado Agriculture Hall of Fame in February 2023 and the Sonnenberg farm was added to the state's Centennial Farms in 2022. The program recognizes farms that have belonged to the same family for at least 100 years and are currently a working farm or ranch.
The Farm Services Agency, part of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, administers farm commodity, disaster, and conservation programs for farmers and ranchers; and it makes and guarantees farm emergency, ownership, and operating loans through a network of state and county offices. Sonnenberg will be based out of the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood, but he anticipates he won't be spending much time in the office, as he plans to be on the road, visiting the individual county FSA offices.
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STRONG JOB GROWTH NUMBERS FOR APRIL, UNEMPLOYMENT RATE STAYS AT 4.2%
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The Labor Dept. reported Friday that the U.S. added 177,000 jobs in April, above the gain of 133,000 jobs that economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected to see. The unemployment rate, which is based on a separate survey from the jobs figures, held steady at 4.2 percent, an indication that the labor market is holding relatively stable. The pace of April’s job gains was lower than the 185,000 jobs added in March. The gains for February and March were revised down by a combined 58,000 jobs. Hourly wages grew by less than expected compared with both a month ago and a year ago. Employment in the transportation and warehousing sector rose by 29,000 jobs last month.
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WARREN BUFFETT ANNOUNCES PLANS TO RETIRE AS BERKSHIRE CEO AT YEAR-END
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Saturday was the annual meeting of shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska. The annual meeting attracts as many as 40,000 people interested in hearing the comments of CEO Warren Buffett in the meeting Buffett has called “Woodstock for Capitalists.” This year, the annual meeting took on every greater importance, as Warren Buffett stunned the investing world by announcing he would step down as chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of the year, and will ask the Berkshire board, meeting Sunday, May 4, to install his designated successor, Berkshire Vice Chairman Greg Abel, as CEO in 2026.
The 94-year-old Buffett, who owns more than $160 billion in Berkshire as its largest shareholder, bought a failing New England textile mill in 1965, and over the next six decades transformed the company into a one-of-a-kind conglomerate with businesses ranging from Geico insurance to BNSF Railway. Buffett is handing over his reins on a high note as Berkshire shares just reached a new peak, giving the conglomerate a market cap of nearly $1.2 trillion.
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COLORADO SPRINGS RANKED NO. 1 FOR “SLEEP TOURISM”
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One of the major considerations for travelers now is the search for wellness destinations. Included in the considerations is the opportunity to disengage from being online and from the world of work for vacation periods. That includes catching up on sleep. A recent study ranked cities on sleep and wellness-related factors such as light pollution, 4+star hotels, safety, fitness clubs, traffic and walking trails among other factors.
- Colorado Springs ranked No. 1 for light pollution; and the most walking trails (176 per 100,000 population). It had the second highest percentage of 4+ hotels and placed sixth in safety.
- Tucson, Ariz.
- Raleigh, N.C.
- El Paso, Texas
- Omaha, Neb.
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AT LAST, FINAL PHASE OF U.S. HWY. 50 BRIDGE REPAIR – PAINTING
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The last piece of repair work on the U.S. Hwy. 50 Middle Bridge and U.S. 50 Lake Fork Bridge is set to begin May 12, as crews conduct paint operations on the new steel. Last year, the Colorado Dept. of Transportation closed the U.S. 50 Middle Bridge, located at Blue Mesa Reservoir between Gunnison and Montrose, to protect public safety after several steel weld cracks were observed during a special inspection. Work to install steel plates beneath both bridges continued through much of 2024 and now, after a winter project shutdown, crews are returning to apply a final coat of paint to the newly repaired steel. Painting work on the U.S. 50 Middle Bridge is scheduled to start Monday, May 12, and when that bridge is completed, crews will shift focus to the U.S. 50 Lake Fork Bridge. This painting work is scheduled to be completed by the end of July.
Here's what motorists can expect:
- Nighttime work hours, 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., Sunday through Friday
- Travel over each bridge will be reduced to a single lane
- Flaggers will direct single-lane travel over each bridge
- The speed limit will be reduced to 35 mph through the work zone
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HUNDREDS TURN OUT FOR EAGLE VALLEY COMMUNITY PRIDE HWY. CLEANUP
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The Eagle River Coalition held its 25th annual Community Pride Highway Cleanup on Saturday, May 3. The annual event is designed to clean up the trash accumulated along highways in Eagle County over the winter, before the spring runoff can wash it down to the waterways. Team 6 West in Edwards, a volunteer group from apartments located along U.S. Highway 6 in Edwards, discovered another agent responsible for throwing out trash. One Team 6 member said, “One of our dumpsters wasn’t bear proofed. So, the bear was taking the bags of trash into the national forest and opening them up and leaving behind all this trash that we collected today.” “We filled several garbage bags with trash from the bear.”
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HARD-TO-RECYCLE DROP OFF IN VAIL, MAY 9
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Those volunteers who participated in the Community Pride Cleanup in the Vail Valley on Saturday discovered many of the discarded items were those that were difficult to recycle. The town of Vail will host a Hard to Recycle event from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Friday, May 9, at the Ford Park parking lot. This will be the only Hard to Recycle event in 2025. The event is free for residents, property owners and those who work in Vail. Charges may apply for excessive volumes. No commercial collections will be accepted.
Items that can be dropped off:
- Electronics, including computers, printers, televisions, phones and small appliances
- Household hazardous waste, including paint and paint-related products, lawn and garden products like fertilizers and weed killers, light bulbs and batteries, household cleaning products and motor oil and antifreeze
- Tires and scrap metals, a four-tire maximum
- Paper, yard waste, vinyl event banners, soft plastics; white, rigid Styrofoam packing; and gently used outdoor gear (excluding climbing gear)
Visit lovevail.org/hard-to-recycle-events for a full list of accepted items and event details.
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MAY IS BIRD MIGRATION TIME IN COLORADO, BUT THERE ARE FEWER BIRDS
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Colorado is entering its peak bird migration season. Millions of birds will fly through the night skies across the state as they migrate north for the summer, with the peak coming from now through May 18. All the birds pause to rest and eat during the day, with some staying to mate and remaining until fall. However, the songbird populations are declining. The list of declining species includes the lark bunting, Colorado’s state bird, which has seen its population drop by 38 percent in the last 11 years, according to eBird, an online database that tracks bird populations in the U.S.
The 2025 State of the Birds report, produced by the U.S. North American Bird Conservation Initiative Committee in March, found a third of all American bird species, a total of 229, are at what researchers call a “tipping point,” meaning they are showing long-term declines and, in some cases, have “perilously low populations.” The causes for declines include the loss of habitat, with former agricultural land now covered with buildings reducing the grasslands that attract insects that birds eat. In addition, there is pollution from insecticides and other chemicals landowners use on their lawns and gardens. Also, cats catch millions of birds each year. The other hazard is tall buildings with big windows which cause confusion with the reflections.
Here are some ways to help migrating birds:
- Turn off outdoor lights at night
- Build pollinator gardens and plant native grasses
- Put decals on windows so birds can see them
- Keep your cats inside
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CDOT TELEPHONE TOWN HALLS
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The Colorado Dept. of Transportation is in the process of developing its 10-Year Vision of the Statewide Transportation Plan, adopted in 2020. As part of the process, CDOT will be hosting telephone town halls across the state in the districts of the members of the Colorado Transportation Commission. The telephone town halls, which will allow Coloradans to join by telephone or online to share their input, are starting next week. Please note that all telephone town halls will begin at 6:30 p.m. and end at 7:30 p.m.
The schedule for CDOT's telephone town halls:
- May 6: Larimer, Weld and Morgan counties
- May 12: Clear Creek, Gilpin, Grand, Jackson, Moffat, Routt and Rio Blanco counties
- May 21: Jefferson, Adams, Boulder and Broomfield counties
- May 29: Cheyenne, Elbert, Kit Carson, Lincoln, Logan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington and Yuma counties
- June 3: Chaffee, Delta, Eagle, Garfield, Gunnison, Lake, Mesa, Montrose, Ouray, Pitkin and Summit counties
- June 5: Alamosa, Archuleta, Conejos, Costilla, Dolores, Hinsdale, La Plata, Mineral, Montezuma, Rio Grande, Saguache, San Miguel and San Juan counties
- June (To be determined): Denver, Arapahoe and Douglas counties
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TWO COLORADO CITIES IN TOP 50 FOR “CHEAPEST PLACES TO RETIRE”
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GOBankingRates analyzed and ranked the 100 biggest U.S. cities based on the annual retirement income needed to cover basic costs, including housing, healthcare, groceries, transportation and utilities. The analysis also included livability rankings. Only cities where the percentage of senior population was 10 percent or higher were considered.
In the top 50, Colorado Springs was No. 13:
- Monthly expenditures: $1,768
- Percent of population age 65 and older: 14.7 percent
- Livability score: 79
Fort Collins was No. 22:
- Monthly expenditures: $1,795
- Percent of population age 65 and older: 12.2 percent
- Livability score: 81
No. 1 in the Top 50 was Akron, Ohio:
- Monthly expenditures: $1,699
- Percent of population age 65 and older: 15.7 percent
- Livability score: 81
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MARKET UPDATE - 05/02/2025 Close
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(Courtesy of Alpine Bank Wealth Management*)
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Canadian dollar (per U.S. dollar)
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Mexican peso (per U.S. dollar)
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30-year fixed mortgage rate (Freddie Mac 05/01/2025)
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*Not FDIC insured. May lose value. Not guaranteed by the bank.
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Alpine Bank is an independent, employee-owned organization with headquarters in Glenwood Springs and banking offices across Colorado's Western Slope, mountains and Front Range. Alpine Bank serves customers with retail, business, wealth management*, mortgage and electronic banking services. Learn more at alpinebank.com.
*Alpine Bank Wealth Management services are not FDIC insured, may lose value and are not guaranteed by the bank.
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